Haven
Feminine · Old English roots · “harbor”
Haven is given to both — 22,889 girls and 4,871 boys since 1880. See Haven as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Haven began as a working word: the Old English hæfen, a harbor, the sheltered water where boats stop being at sea. English kept the sound almost unchanged for a thousand years and widened the sense from a place ships rest to any place anyone rests. It is one syllable of open vowel followed by a soft ending, and it reads correctly the first time for anyone who knows the English word.
How old is the name Haven?
Haven first appears in US birth records in 1920 — 105 years ago. The typical Haven is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 22,500 people named Haven are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Haven most popular?
Haven peaked in 2025, reaching #190 nationally. Today it ranks #190, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
From hæfen (Old English) to Haven
The story of Haven
The root is Old English hæfen, a harbor or anchorage, kin to Dutch haven and German Hafen and to the -havn in Danish place names. Through the medieval period the word carried both meanings at once, the literal port and the shelter it offered, and English never lost either. It also settled into use as an English surname, and American naming has long been willing to move surnames and plain nouns into the first-name slot. Haven appears in US birth records well before its recent rise, in small numbers, decade after decade, which is why it arrives now as a revival rather than an invention.
Meaning
harbor; a place of shelter or safety
The literal sense is the older one — a harbor or port. The figurative sense of refuge grew out of it in Middle English and is now the sense most speakers hear first.
How the name formed
- hæfenOld English
- haven
- Haven
Pronouncing Haven
HAY-vən
Stress on the first syllable, exactly like the English word. No competing pronunciation.
Nicknames for Haven
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1920
- Most girls named
- 20251,642 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #190reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +7.9%1,642 in 2025, from 1,522
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Haven in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, North Carolina.
Havens among us
people named Haven are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 979 born in 2025 was named Haven
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Tessa test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Haven's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tessa climbed just as high around 2007, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tessa's path sketches the road Haven is walking now.
Haven is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Haven is headed
Haven looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 17% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Haven beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Haven in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds and already known to every English speaker as a word — almost no one will need it repeated or clarified.
- Two clean syllables with a single stress pattern; no regional variants to correct.
- Documented in American birth records across many decades before its current rise, so it is a revival with a real paper trail.
- Works unchanged for a boy or a girl, with no feminine or masculine respelling to choose between.
- Haven and Heaven are one consonant apart, and people will sometimes mishear or misspell it that way. Most Havens learn a quick, cheerful correction early.
- This is a rising name, so a child born now may be the only one in the class while later classes hold two or three. That is a different experience from a name that has already peaked and settled.
- Boys with this spelling are a small minority. A son named Haven will meet the assumption that the name belongs to girls — worth knowing in advance rather than discovering at roll call.
- It resists shortening. If you like having a formal name and a everyday name, Haven gives you essentially one option.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Haven to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Haven
Feminine · Old English roots · #190 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Havens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 22,500 people named Haven are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Haven in 2025?
- Haven ranks #190 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,642 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Haven?
- About 1 in every 979 US girls born in 2025 was named Haven — 1,642 in all.
- Will my child share the name Haven with classmates?
- Haven will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Haven
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Tatum#189 · Blakely#191 · Celeste#188 · Reese#192 · Kaia#193 · Everleigh#194 · Lila#186 · Katherine#186
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Haven? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Haven and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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